1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to combined brushes and scrapers and particularly to a toothbrush having a conventional toothbrush bristles at a first end of a handle and a tongue scraper pivotally mounted to a second end of the handle; the tongue scraper may be pivoted in alignment with the handle for storage or perpendicular to the handle for use, each position is held by a system of projections on the tongue scraper and mating dimples in the handle.
2. Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Bad breath is caused by bacteria, dead tissue, and food debris in the mouth, and unless removed, they will mix with saliva to form plaque. Plaque is harmful to the teeth and gums and also causes mouth odors which are often a great cause of embarrassment to the individual suffering from them.
Prior art devices for combined toothbrushes and tongue scrapers generally build the tongue scraper into the handle thereby providing narrow tongue scrapers requiring repeated passes over the tongue to scrape the entire tongue surface and generally wider or pivoting handles with scrapers protrude from the handle and do not provide a smooth handle for using the brush end of the toothbrush.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,143, issued Dec. 31, 1929 to Chin, provides a tongue scraper and tooth brush combination. The tongue scraper is pivotally secured to the end of tooth brush handle opposite the brush end. The tongue scraper may be pivoted in alignment with the handle when not in use or perpendicular to the handle for use.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,658,706, issued Feb. 7, 1928 to Carrott, is for a combined toothbrush and tongue scraper. In an alternate embodiment, a folding toothbrush handle is provided with toothbrush bristles on a first member thereof and tongue scraper on a second member thereof. The handle may be folded for storage or extended for use. The tongue scraper member has a V-shaped ridge which mates with V-shaped depressions in the toothbrush member to hold the handle in either a folded or extended position.
U.S. Pat. No. D377,417, issued Jan. 21, 1997 to Gupta, describes the ornamental design for a combined tongue cleaner and toothbrush, which has tongue cleaning ridges molded into a cross member at the end of the toothbrush handle.
U.S. Patent Application #20050016561, published Jan. 27, 2005 by Sexson, illustrates a folding, disposable toothbrush. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the toothbrush includes dental floss, a toothpick, and a tongue scraper
U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,762, issued May 24, 1955 to Kling, shows an oral instrument including a toothbrush at one end, a pad including rubber massaging fingers at the other end thereof, and a tapered tongue scraper blade pivotally mounted in between.
U.S. Pat. No. D354,624, issued Jan, 24, 1995 to Gupta, claims the ornamental design for a combined tongue cleaner and toothbrush, which has tongue cleaning ridges molded into the handle of the toothbrush.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,581, issued Nov. 18, 2003 to Persad, discloses a tongue cleaner being fitted into a hollow opening inside the handle of a toothbrush. It is very accessible from the handle like a pocket knife. The material of the tongue cleaner is made of plastic, 0.5 mm in thickness, about 12 cm long, and 1 cm in width. The material can be easily bent in a v-shape pattern because in the center of the tongue cleaner there is a slight depression of 1 mm in the width of the material.
Two U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,422 issued Mar. 16, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,346 issued Jun. 22, 1999 both to Narwani, indicate a folding tongue cleaning device used to scrape the tongue to remove bacteria, tongue debris and film and other particular matter from the tongue. It can be easily rinsed and reused, and, because it is manufactured from plastic, is easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,981, issued Jul. 2, 1996 to Chen, puts forth a toothbrush having a scraper disposed therein. The toothbrush includes a handle and a bristle portion which has a barrel connected therewith and is pivotally engaged to the handle with a cylinder disposed to the barrel pivotally engaged between two ears extending from an end of the handle, the handle having a groove defined in a side thereof for the scraper to be inserted therein, each of the ears having a first recess defined therein and the cylinder having a plurality of short grooves defined in both ends thereof, the scraper having a first end and having two parts extending therefrom for insertion into said short grooves, a hook portion formed to one of the parts laterally and engaged with the first recess of the ear, the scraper having a T-shaped plate slidably received in the groove of the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,856, issued Sep. 22, 1998 to Tveras, concerns a toothbrush combined with a wiping or scraping device, particularly for cleaning a human tongue, having one or more wiping teeth or wiping elements. Each tooth or element has at least one scoop-like side which terminates at a wiping edge or ridge in an undercutting fashion. Various embodiments are provided for providing bi-directional or planar-directional wiping or cleaning action. For example, embodiments of the invention include wiping devices, linear wiping elements or circular wiping elements with outwardly-directed and/or inwardly-directed annular wiping edges. The wiping device may include a plurality of wiping elements arranged in a row or array.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,583, issued Apr. 15, 2003 to Rohrig, illustrates a toothbrush comprising a handle at one end of which a bristle portion is provided for cleaning the teeth, and a massaging portion at the opposite end of the handle. The massaging portion may be raised transverse webs that can alternately be used as a tongue scraper.
U.S. Pat. No. D390,008, issued Feb. 3, 1998 to Blosser, is for the ornamental design for a toothbrush with water activated paste. The toothbrush has transverse raised ridges across the end of its handle.
What is needed is a combined toothbrush and tongue scraper with a pivoting tongue scraper which pivots out and locks in an operative position with a wide scraper having a series of scraping ridges perpendicular to the brush handle providing a tongue scraper substantially the width of a tongue of a user and pivot back and locks into alignment with the toothbrush handle resting within a recessed space in the toothbrush handle so that a user has a uniformly sized handle throughout its length for ease of use of the bush portion for brushing the teeth.